As some of you may know, the Families and Work Institute is a leading research entity in the field of work/life balance. They recently held their annual Legacy Awards dinner, and asked leaders in the work/life arena to share what their wish is for work/life. Their responses are on their blog, and they’d also like to hear from others. Their question:

What is your wish? How can we achieve a better fit for life on and off the job?

In our quest to make ROWE the status quo, we’d like to ask for your help in sharing your thoughts about ROWE with the Families and Work Institute on their blog. Here’s a great opportunity to make your thoughts known!

It’s toward the end of June, and those companies that were thinking about whether or not to implement “summer hours” have either done so by now or are still hemming and hawing.  The Summer Hours phenomenon never fails to amaze us.  Every spring, planning committees come together to make the life or death decision of whether to allow employees to take every Friday, or 1/2 days on Fridays, off of work.  After 43 meetings, endless hallway conversations, writing and rewriting of guidelines, and 72 signoffs, the decision might be made to maybe trust a handful of employees to work Summer Hours.

One of our blog readers sent us the following note that was distributed by the HR Director at his company regarding Summer Hours.

Please send us the communications that have been distributed/are being distributed about Summer Hours at your organization - we’ll publish the most absurd, paternalistic examples we receive (without names, of course).  We know there are more like this out there!

“SUMMER HOURS!

With such a short summer season, we realize you may be anxious to leave early on Fridays to get the most out of your weekends.  In light of that, the benefit of having a summer hours schedule will be offered again this year at [company name].

For summer hours, you may work longer during the other days of the week to free up a half-day on Friday or Monday if desired to extend your weekend.  However, you can elect to take the whole day off on Friday or Monday under this program if desired; you will just need to use 4 hours of vacation combined with working four 9-hour days worked the rest of the week.

The specifics of this benefit are as follows:

• This type of scheduling doesn’t work for every department.
• Summer hours can be used on a Monday or a Friday.
• Employees cannot work through their lunch period to gain “extra” hours - all employees must take at least 1/2 hour for lunch (this is true year-round)
• Ensuring department coverage to meet internal and external customer requirements is important.

Please feel free to give me or any member of the HR Department a call if you have any questions.

Here’s to a summer full of wonderful weather!”

Nothing like enjoying the wonderful weather while being watched by the warden!

Forbes.com recently published some interesting survey data from consulting firm Towers Perrin about How Workers Feel Right Now. Here are the numbers:

• Engagement is up one to two points from 2008
• Efficiency is up eight points
• The feeling that management is giving people a clear sense of direction is down from 71% to 63%
• Understanding of company goals fell from 79% to 69%
• Understanding of department goals fell from 83% to 71%

If you look at what’s happened to the economy and the workplace in the past years, these numbers make sense. It’s a snapshot of downsizing, fear, and confusion:

• Engagement goes up because people are afraid of losing their jobs.
• Efficiency goes up because there are fewer people doing the same amount of work.
• Understanding of goals and expectations goes down because our work culture is based on time and abstractions like “dedication.”

That drop in department goals clarity is really telling (and deadly). It shows that the long boom masked a lot of dodgy management. Because if you’re making your numbers and you’re having even a little bit of success, then you don’t really have to question what you’re doing. It’s only when times turn sour that an organization starts to ask itself, “What are we doing?”

Right now we’re hearing stories from people who feel lucky to have a job, but feel completely at sea. Their bosses—who are used to managing time and not results—don’t know what to do other than issue vague commands like “let’s really buckle down” and “we need to work hard here, people” and “let’s all make sure we’re extra available and responsive.”

The work culture that allowed these kinds of statements to pass as acceptable may be gone forever. While we don’t welcome the human cost of the global economic crisis, we do hope that our current woes provide an opportunity to emerge in better shape than when we entered.

Happy “Leave the Office Earlier Day”!

Yes, you read that right.  “Leave the Office Earlier Day” is indeed today, and it’s actually included in Chase’s Calendar of Events as a holiday.  What does it mean?  “The idea isn’t really to duck out of work after lunch, of course; rather, it’s to stick to a sane and sensible eight-hour day, allowing you to devote the extra time to your friends, family, and fun.”

Instead of give you our take on this insanely idiotic day (woops - guess that was a taste of our take), we asked a few people that are in the midst of their ROWE migrations to share their thoughts.  Here they are:

Why do you think a day like “Leave the Office Earlier Day” needs to be created?

• “Because most employers do not truly allow their employees to create a work/life balance that works for their lives and fits with what they company feels is correct.”
• “To try to relieve the stress that employees feel and try to make them happier.”
• “Because employees are working more than eight hours a day, and are feeling stressed.”

Note the line in the article that says “The idea isn’t really to duck out of work after lunch, of course; rather, it’s to stick to a sane and sensible eight-hour day, allowing you to devote the extra time to your friends, family, and fun.”  What’s wrong with this picture?

• “So, am I supposed to go back to an insensible, insane work schedule after my one day of freedom?!”
• “There are so many things wrong with this line.  First, it is perceived that if you leave after lunch, you are leaving too early.  It’s promoting that you still need to work what the majority of people consider to be a normal day - 8 hours - but they’re making it appear that the company is being generous because you can now leave earlier than what the company considers to be the ‘normal’ workday of possibly 10 hours or more.  By saying you get to devote the extra time to certain things also shows that the company is saying ‘we own your time’ instead of owning your work results.”
• “They’ve created a ’special day’ for employees to have a sane and sensible work environment?  Is one to conclude that the other 259 workdays are insane?”

How does ROWE differ from the mindset of this holiday?

• “ROWE differs from the mindset of this day because ROWE is a lifestyle, not something you fit in for one day or another.  ROWE allows you (the employee) to decide when and where you need to spend time working, having fun, being with friends and family…ROWE allows you to make the choices, not your employer!”
• “ROWE is a lifestyle that focuses on work results, not time.  ROWE is every day, not just one day.”
• “In a ROWE, employees always have more time to devote to friends, family, and fun because time is always in their control.”

What’s wrong with having a “day” like this vs. a lifestyle?

• “Your life does not always fit into one day.  To make a true difference in employees’ work/life balance, you need to make a lifestyle change instead of providing a Band-Aid.”
• “Having one day like this is not going to solve any type of work/life balance issues for employees.”
• “Having a day like this does not solve the underlying problem of employees not having control of their time.”

If you could tell the creator of this day one thing, what would it be?

• “Nice try!  But if you are trying to provide your employees with a chance at better work/life balance, your approach needs to change.  Your employees need to be able to choose what works for them to create this balance in their own lives instead of you telling the employees when and how it should work for them!”
• “Get real!  This one day is not going to solve work/life balance issues.  What about all the other workdays?”
• “Stop with the Band-Aids and do the surgery!  Leaving the office early on one day will improve employee morale for a day, but does nothing to address the underlying problems of the traditional work environment.”

Now for those of you on the East Coast, it’s probably okay for you to leave now…but you West Coasters, it’s still too early.  Give it another hour and then enjoy all of your extra time…for today.

Over at  Transportation for America, they’ve launched a fun new web project called My Commute Sucks. The site gives people a chance to vent their rage at being stuck in traffic, and puts the onus on the federal government to stop pursuing its current course of pouring money into a broken system.

We couldn’t agree more. Commuting does suck, and what makes it suck all the more is that it’s unnecessary. If we weren’t so hung up on TIME and outdated notions of being “late” or “early” or “on time” then we wouldn’t have a commuting problem as we now know it. People would be in the office some days, and at a coffee shop another. When they did come into the office, they would be arriving and leaving at all times.

This can only happen if we can nudge the conversation about congestion away from issues such as road capacity and timing lights and other technical solutions, and push the argument into a framework that revolves around social change. So please do your part. Head over to the project’s Let It All Out page and speak up for results. If we can set aside our assumptions about time, then we just may be able to stop the madness.

P.S. Fairview Health Services’ IT department is now live in a ROWE - all 360 of them.  As you might recall, they are part of the MN Dept. of Transportation project we’re working on to reduce traffic congestion in the Twin Cities.  After being live in a ROWE for only 7 weeks, they are already talking about their commute savings of both time and money.  For one employee, she used to wake her daughter up at 5:00am to take her to daycare so she could be on the road, get through her commute, and be to work “on time”.  Now, she lets her daughter sleep until she wakes up, enjoys breakfast with her, and has taken her out of daycare.  Another employee used to fill her gas tank once a week, and now she’s filling it once a month.  The answer to our commute problems lies within our own beliefs - and it’s up to each of us to break free of their shackles.

No e-mails after eight, please!

Forbes.com recently ran a story about formerly always-on, go-go-go executives who are embracing traditional work hours as they seek greater productivity and better work-life balance. Here’s the opening story:

Susan Wilson Solovic likes her sleep and her time off. But it wasn’t long ago that the hour between 2 and 3 a.m. was her prime e-mailing time, and vacations were little more than a different setting in which to work.

“People thought I was crazy,” says Solovic, the chief executive of Small Business Television Network, a Web-based news and information service for entrepreneurs. But, she says, “our company was growing rapidly, and my life became completely consumed by the business.”

Five years after the launch of SBTV.com, Solovic approaches work far differently. For starters, she is no longer at the mercy of her e-mail and refuses to take projects on vacation.

We don’t think you’re crazy for e-mailing in the middle of the night, Susan. We think you’re crazy for stopping.

What’s crazy are the people who judged you based on the time stamp of your e-mail, or for working while you’re on the beach. What’s crazy is a story about you being “at the mercy” of your e-mail. What’s crazy is comparing the demands of a start-up with the demands of a business that’s five years into its lifespan.

We don’t want people to be workaholics, but we also believe that people have the right to pursue their career however they see fit. To us, Ms. Solovic made a choice. She decided to take on this enormous and exciting undertaking and (big surprise!) it was a lot of work.

But look at SBTV now. It’s up and running and doing its thing. If running the business takes less time and energy now, or if that time and energy fits into a neater box, then that’s great. But that doesn’t change the choice that Susan made (and one that seems to us like a good one).

We shouldn’t be judging people for how they decide to approach their work.  It’s that simple. As long as the work is getting done, and as long as people have the freedom to operate in the best way to get that work done, then there is no crazy. And nine-to-five is not a badge of honor, but just one of many options.

The French are locking up their bosses as a labor negotiation technique.

The English are throwing bricks through their bosses’ windows.

The Americans are setting up fake Twitter accounts to get their revenge.

What to make of all of this?

First, we understand the anti-boss rage. The global economy is a mess and there are some individuals who bear more responsibility than most. That those individuals will become symbols of All That Is Wrong is natural.

We’ve also dealt with our share of jerkwad (that’s right: we said “jerkwad”) bosses who deserve bricks, lockdowns and Internet shame.

But we’re also saddened by these reactions because they only serve to reinforce the status quo. The more you rail against the power your boss has over you, the more power you give your boss.

One of the most insidious forms of Sludge is Sludge Anticipation. This is when you’re running late for work, and you’re imagining all the things your boss is going to say to you when you walk in. And you prepare a stack of great excuses about traffic and sick kids and broken water heaters.

Then what happens when you walk in? Often nothing at all. So you’ve just wasted all that energy and created all that stress for yourself for nothing. Worst of all, you’ve given your boss a tremendous amount of extra power. You’ve allowed him or her to temporarily take over your thoughts.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog and who aren’t in a Results-Only Work Environment, we understand how frustrating it can be to not work in a ROWE. But no matter how bad your work culture is, you can still draw the line at your own mind.

So put all those revenge fantasies on the shelf. They’re just another form of Sludge Anticipation. Your brain deserves better.

We weren’t going to write about it, but everywhere we turn, people are commenting “Why don’t businesses see that ROWE could have them prepared for pandemic/natural disaster situations from now until kingdom come, and we wouldn’t have to go through mass chaos every time something like this happened?!”  We have to agree and give our take on two points of the telework and telecommuting solutions being recommended for the Swine Flu concerns.

1. Yes, people should be able to make common sense decisions about where they work - all the time, not simply because there’s a health scare.  It’s amazing that within a matter of a few days, experts went from saying “During this recession, our recommendation is not to request a telecommuting/flexible schedule - do all you can in the office to keep your job” to experts (and even the President) saying “Now may be the perfect time to telecommute so we can take  all precautions during this time of health concern.”  So…which is it?  Sounds like some major mixed messages to us.  One minute, I’m scared I’ll lose my job if I ask permission to work from home one day a week, and now I’m scared I’ll get deathly ill if I don’t ask for the permission.  Talk about stress!

This is one of those moments where we imagine how things would be different if ROWE were the status quo for office environments.  If we had the foundation of a Results-Only Work Environment as the way all offices operated, the question of how to keep businesses running, or how parents would care for their kids when schools are closed due to outbreaks near them, wouldn’t even be asked.  ROWE creates the foundation where anything can happen in the outside world and the work still gets done.  Period.

2.  The recommendation of telecommuting to help with business continuity during this Swine Flu situation exemplifies the extreme difference between adaptive and technical solutions.  Announcing to your employee population that you will now allow telecommuting during this health scare is a technical solution.  You can supply laptops and other mobile technology devices to your employees and tell them to take precautions by working off-site.  But in a work culture that values face time and long hours in the office, those laptops might never leave their docking stations.  In fact, those employees that come to the office despite outbreaks near their communities may even be viewed as more loyal - however sick that might be (pun intended).  With technical solutions, there is no attempt to change people’s beliefs about the current state, which leads to nothing ever changing or a very short-lived change.

With adaptive solutions, beliefs are tackled with a vengeance.  In the case of ROWE, everyone comes to terms with what they’ve believed for decades about how work needs to happen and what they believe about the people who work with them:

• I believe work should happen in an office building.
• I believe work starts at 8am and ends at 5pm, and the workweek is Monday through Friday.
• I believe people with kids just aren’t as dedicated as the rest of us.
• I believe relationships need to be built face-to-face.
• I believe that if we give autonomy to employees, they’ll take advantage of the system.

The list goes on and on.  Once the beliefs are at the forefront and people start breaking them down - individually and together - their “work DNA” starts to change and that’s where the mindset shift begins.

As a country, if we want to truly be prepared for future pandemics, natural disasters, or unforeseen events that could affect business continuity, it’s time to throw out the Band-Aid solutions like telecommuting.  Let’s change the fabric of how work happens in office environments and we’ll never have to deal with these “But how are we going to keep business running?” questions again.

For CEOs who’ve been otherwise resistant to treating employees more humanely, perhaps this headline will be the deciding factor:

Announcing Work-Life Balance Programs Raises Stock Prices

Professor Michelle Arthur of the University of New Mexico performed a statistical analysis on how the stock market reacted when Fortune 500 companies said they were adopting work-family initiatives. Arthur found these announcements in the Wall Street Journal (which we, in turn, cribbed from this BusinessWeek blog post) and they’re pretty typical:

“IBM began a childcare referral service for its employees”

“Procter & Gamble broadening the scope of their family-friendly policies”

What’s interesting is how these announcements were received. In the 80s, the reaction was slightly negative (reaction was at -0.35%). Now the reaction is slightly positive (0.48%). As the BusinessWeek post points out, “Now that may seem peanuts to you, but if you’re a $5 billion company, it means that even one such initiative could increase the value of your firm by 24 million. That’s a lot of peanuts. And a lot of share-holder value.”

Of course, this study says nothing about whether or not these programs were ever implemented, or if they were effective, or if they led to increased engagement or productivity. And the cynics out there will feast on the obvious—an uptick in stock price is a triumph less for people than for PR.

Still, the reason why this kind of PR works is telling. Because even though this study is operating at the most macro of macro levels, it shows once again how much pain people are in at work.

We want these kinds of initiatives to be true and we want them to work because we know that the traditional work environment creates an incredible amount of conflict in our lives. Having to be in a cube at 8:00 a.m. every single day regardless of the circumstances in our lives (or the circumstances in our jobs) just doesn’t work in a global, networked, knowledge-based economy.

So, yes, corporate America is throwing us a bone when they announce they’re “broadening the scope of their family-friendly policies” (whatever that means). Yes, there’s a good chance it’s all smoke and mirrors, that it’s a sham, a fake- out.

But because people are yearning for control over their lives, the reaction is real.  That much we know.